SigmaWay Blog

According to Lauren Jung (Co-Founder of Theshelf.com), customers believe influencers over Facebook, twitter post for getting information about new trends, innovations and advice for buying products. Influencers are individuals who have the power to affect purchase decisions of others because of their (real or perceived) authority, knowledge, position, or relationship. In consumer spending, members of a peer group or reference group act as influencers.

Here are some tips to make influencer marketing effective are:

•         For making influence marketing successful align with influencer who have the power to influence the buyer’s decision or inbound interest.
•         Tailor your strategy based on the influencer.
•         Try to maintain a relationship.
•         Encourage content creation from brand evangelists.

 Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245757

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is a type of e-commerce conducted through mobile devices such as mobile phones and other mobile devices with a wireless connection - including smart phones (iPhones, Google Android), tablets (iPad, Amazon Kindle) and notebooks. M-Commerce also brings new opportunities for selling online, and mobile marketing can be used to extend online reach. Four things a company must consider while developing m-commerce marketing strategy are:

·         Reach: Tap into the uniqueness of mobile-first consumers.

·         Curate: Trigger impulse purchases through well-crafted offers.

·         Entertain: Make shopping fun and easy, not just cheap.

·         Lock in: Capture the loyalty of mobile shoppers early.

Read more at: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/consumer_and_retail/learning_from_south_koreas_mobile-retailing_boom

For long term survival of an organization, they need regular and loyal customers. According to Brian Horn (Author and Co-Founder of Authority Alchemy), for building long term relationships with your customers, an organization needs to build trust. Following are the ways to build relationship and brand loyalty: • Offering returning customers a discount on services.
• Giving rewards for references.
• Offering updates.
• Really caring about your customers.
Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245439

According to a survey, for hiring a customer service worker, an employer approximately spend $8800 on hiring and training and 70% of customer service worker leave a job within 1year. Some steps for employee retention are: • Provide training to workers and motivate them.
• Evaluate the performance of the employees and give feedback.
• Implement the customer service training software.
• Give employee work from home choice, this will reduce cost per employee up to $2000.
Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245524

According to Gideon Kimbrell (CEO of InList.com, Founder of Syragon), for developing a successful multi marketing strategy an organization need to follow some steps: • Take a decision with influencers or consultants who have experience. You can also choose social media influencers for posting information.
• Have complete knowledge about your customer’s behavior, which can be used in making marketing strategy and use CRM
• Business earns loyalty by engaging customers, so use high visibility placements.
• Asses your present and potential customers value.
For building a good marketing strategy, an organization needs to focus on the customer. Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245360

Procurement officer works in the field of purchasing and focus on reducing costs for purchased material and services and thus ensuring timely delivery of goods and services. But, now their role is becoming more complex. They need to guard the brand name, use sustainable business practices and find innovative ways to develop new products and services. They also need to adopt a holistic strategy. Procurement officers need to establish collaborative outsourcing and service acquisition models and also need to find & nurture the next generation. Read more at: http://www.industryweek.com/procurement/procurement-2025-10-challenges-will-transform-global-sourcing

According to John Sculley (entrepreneur and the former CEO of Pepsi-Cola and Apple) a drastic change is taking place in marketing with the expansion of incredible new technologies like big data, cloud computing and numerous miniature sensors as well as mobile devices, making customers smarter. Nowadays customers value each other's opinion more than the producers'. With the beginning of a big-data marketing era, the prospects for entrepreneurs to disrupt and build companies have improved because technology costs have reduced. Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238363

The KYC platform launched by eClerx enables both seller and buyer clients to establish and conduct KYC processes. Reduction of regulatory risk and compliance across multiple jurisdictions is ensured under high level of supervision. Clients using eClerx's KYC offering are able to extra proficiently involve in business relationships and decrease the possibility of illegal activities such as money laundering. Organizations, not properly managing their KYC, face risk and reputation. Therefore KYC has come into the regulatory forefront and is an indispensable component of enterprise risk. Read more at: http://www.hedgeweek.com/2014/10/13/211289/eclerx-launches-know-your-customer-solution

A lot is at stake in the stock market because average stock valuations are in high-normal range. Most analysts agree that if the average P/E Ratio of S&P 500 is anything greater than 20, it means stocks are in a rather high-priced region. There are several factors however that might create problems. To know more go through the article by Julian Close (business writer, PRA International and the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping) at: http://www.marketintelligencecenter.com/articles/612420

In today's world, agriculture is not enough for farmers to sustain and to move on to the next level. Business-oriented agriculture should be encouraged. Without proper market intelligence, profit making is impractical. Farmers are not aware of the market demand and what consumers want. So, farmers and traders should work together to promote products required in the market and fix prices using technology in farming. A programme focusing on this issue was organized by National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation, Coimbatore, and Department of Horticulture, Madurai, under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture. They are trying to identify the horticultural needs of farmers and bring out solutions. Read more at: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/market-intelligence-is-crucial-for-farmers/article6454553.ece

Today's small businesses are setting their focus on their own unique products and services rather than the best piece of real estate for showcasing. They now cater to local markets and potential customers and are shifting their focus towards local SEO. There are many valid reasons for this. Customers simply choose to spend their hard earned money locally as it gives a feeling of economic stability. To know more about why and how to optimize a small business presence with localized SEO efforts, read the article by David Goehst (Entrepreneur, Expert Blogger, and Search Engine Pro) at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-goehst/how-local-seo-speeds-up-small-business-growth_b_5830646.html

Businesses are shifting to cloud based systems to boost business intelligence. Small to medium business enterprises are now shifting to cloud based applications to enhance their marketing strategies. However, large firms are using these solutions to expand their market. Cloud business intelligence (BI) provides productivity tools and applications that will benefit organizations. These benefits include the speed of deployment speed and implementation of various business apps, scaling up of web applications and the integration of business intelligence apps to enhance business productivity and cost effectiveness. There are many cloud business intelligence solutions available in the market today. To know more about the best cloud business intelligence solutions that you can find in the market today, read the article by Jason Bowden (contributor to Business 2 Community) at: http://www.business2community.com/cloud-computing/best-cloud-business-intelligence-solutions-marketing-analytics-01006959#4THfUeqShLhspv3m.99

According to Darian Shirazi (founder of Radius and a Forbes contributor), marketers measure success based on the dollar value of pipeline they are able to generate in order to increase revenue. The marketers, who can reach their goals, work closely with their sales team who can find appropriate customers. The ones who struggle to reach their goals are not aware of their sales team's ability to close deals. To highlight pipeline, and to find customers, marketers need to understand deeply how to market properly. Hence marketers today, have access to new data sources, superior analytics, and better integrations that allow them to generate high value pipelines. Read more at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/darianshirazi/2014/09/16/marketing-automation-2-0-marketing-intelligence/

According to Perry Yeatman (Principal, Mission Measurement & CEO, Perry Yeatman Global Partners), the growing significance of social value drivers for consumers is one of many changes in the marketplace that CMOs of different companies are experiencing nowadays. Differentiating a brand based on price, quality or convenience is getting increasingly difficult. However, it has led to a new meaning for all marketers to find new ways to make their products matter. One of the most promising new set of benefits is inherent social benefits. Discrete choice analysis is implemented across categories to identify the most influential social value drivers. Many leading companies are already reaping the benefits from this. The benefits range from increased revenue to improved loyalty. These new social value drivers are thus powerful, which is why CMOs must embrace them to build uniquely relevant and meaningful brands. Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/perry-yeatman/new-research-simultaneous_b_5828710.html

The most important part in determining a company's stock growth is extremely difficult. But, by asking a few key questions, investors can improve the accuracy of their guesswork. Firstly, take some time to examine the market growth rate- For example, Apple less than a decade ago, was known only for computers, but now it has a market share on the phone and tablet market. To get some hints of their future prospects, you need to estimate the percentage of people who already have smartphones and the percentage of customers who will buy new smartphones etc. Secondly, a company's market share impacts in a big way on its future sales growth. Coffee-retailer Starbucks and automaker Honda are examples of companies that have used their brand name to grow their market share. Also, pricing is an important factor and needs to be considered as it has a big impact on sales revenue growth of any company. Read more at: : http://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/04/100604.asp

Several financial services clients currently are successfully building a robust suite of information platforms to offer a superior variety of resources for its researchers. With a unique platform that offers value to users, the job of researchers to help clients with current, assorted needs for market data is enhanced. The need for robust information platform is clearly due to a continual demand for market data. Other than the immediate availability of the data, researchers also need the data to be presented in a complimentary layout that boosts the usability of the data, which is a principal requirement of platform functionality. Read more at: http://blog.marketresearch.com/how-market-research-solutions-complement-financial-services-firms%E2%80%99-existing-data-resources

A European Telecommunications company wanted to lower its customer service operation costs but worried from the loss of revenue by doing so. In investigating its options, the company learned that 70 percent of existing customer-service contacts could be delivered through digital solutions that had proved effective in other industries. E-care involves the delivery of customer service via web-based user accounts, social networks, mobile phone, and the Internet rather than call centers or facilities open to the public. Such digital services are increasingly demanded by customers, who are already using digital platforms to research and review products, as well as broadcast their service frustrations. And it makes sense from a financial perspective, too. It has the potential to significantly lower the cost of customer service operations while increasing customer satisfaction. Not only this, but e-care also brings a company closer to its customers. Adopting e-care is worth the effort and that virtually every consumer-facing industry that has high customer-relationship needs can benefit from it. Read more at: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/why_companies_should_care_about_ecare

The growth of e-commerce in present times has been a cause of worry for many analysts and they proclaim that traditional "bricks and mortar" shopping was going to extinct. But a new study shows the traditional shopping is still alive and well for many Americans. According to new study by global consulting firm A.T. Kearney, consumers continue to flock to physical retail locations and are actually crucial in generating online sales for retailers. According to the study, 90% of all U.S. retail sales conducted last year was done in a physical store versus only about 9% done online. Moreover, 95% of sales were accounted by retailers with bricks and mortar presence. Kearney noted that stores make a significant contribution to generating sales, even if the transaction is eventually done online. Through the five stages of a retail transaction - Discovery, Trial & Test, Purchase, Delivery or Pickup, and Returns - at some point along the chain, the majority of consumers will use a physical store. One could be in smaller mall operators. While Simon is the largest owner, smaller firms like CBL & Associates Properties Inc. (CBL), Macerich Co. (MAC) have all experienced faster funds-from-operations (FFO) growth than their bigger rival. The bottom line is Bricks and mortar stores aren't dead or even dying. Not by a long shot. For investors, that mean the owners of shopping malls, power centers and other retail real estate are in a prime position to continue paying strong dividends for years to come. Read more at: : http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/080614/why-bricks-and-mortar-retail-remains-solid-bet-spg-cbl-mac-amzn.aspx

Every business big or small requires using CRM. This includes being organized in tasks, events, meetings, emails, notes, data etc, enhancing communication between team members, better reports, metrics and analytics, customer status and need updates, communication record and history, tracking and scheduling, and availability of centralised data for easy access and data protection.

Information needs to be available to sales personnel outside the office as well which brings in the need for mobile CRM. It allows employees’ to access information anywhere improving sales performance and team information collaboration. Collection and recording of information is made easier with mobile CRM, easy updates on source cuts the waiting time of the sales personnel in getting back to the office and then updating through CRM.

read more at:  http://www.whatech.com/crm/blog/25523-smbs-do-i-really-need-a-mobile-crm

The Internet is the great equalizer as it gives small businesses marketing opportunities on par with their larger competitors. The good news is that a number of inexpensive small business marketing methods can help a business achieve its goal-and some are even free. The following are the small business Marketing Tips one can afford: 1. Post videos online

2. Post case studies on one’s website

3. Use company’s blog to reach out to prospects and customers

4. List the company on Google Maps/Local

5. Search forums for customers

6. Share information all over the Web

7. Use content curation to drive interest in the products

8. Use online services to re-target lost sales and to list products

9. Use Facebook's sponsored stories

10. Use online services to get the media's attention.

Not every marketing tactics listed above will work well for every company, but a combination of several of them—or adaptations to any of them—should be helpful to just about any company.

Read more at: 

http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/News/Marketing/10-affordable-small-business-marketing-strategies-3.html